Yes it's an actual horse I found the picture online supposibly the horse is famous for its mane and tail. I grew up on a horse farm and can tell you it would be very difficult to get a horse to grow a mane and tail that long. My guess is they kept it braided for extra weight and fed it lots of fish oil to cause the hair to grow faster. And yes I feel sorry for poor pony but I bet they babied that horse a lot.